UPDATE 1-Kuwait's KIPCO to start IPO process for pay-TV unit in weeks

* OSN TV unit operates in North Africa and the Middle East

* Valued last year at $4.3 bln by Arqaam Capital

* KIPCO hopes listing completed by the end of 2014
(Adds background, details on OSN)

KUWAIT, March 31 (Reuters) - Kuwait Projects Co
(KIPCO), the Gulf state's largest listed investment company,
plans to start the process for an initial public offering (IPO)
of shares by its pay-television unit OSN within weeks, it said
on Monday

Deputy chairman Faisal al-Ayyar said he hoped the bourse
listing would be completed by the end of this year, and that he
was looking at a primary listing in London.

"We start the process within a few weeks," Ayyar told
reporters on the sidelines of KIPCO's annual general meeting.

Asked where OSN would list, he said: "It depends on how much
corporate governance is needed, and how much is needed as a
stake to be sold ... all things are tilted towards London, but
not as GDR (global depositary receipts), as a primary listing."

He did not say which banks were involved in the process.

The OSN network operates in the Middle East and North
Africa. Ayyar said it currently had around $700 million in
annual revenues which he expects to double over the next three
years.

KIPCO said in February the network had nearly a million
subscribers.

KIPCO, an investment house with stakes in media, industrial,
financial and real estate companies, said in June it was
planning to list OSN. It currently has a 60.5 percent stake.

KIPCO hired financial group Rothschild to advise on the IPO.

Last year brokerage Arqaam Capital said it had raised its
valuation of OSN to $4.3 billion from the previous estimate of
$2.5 billion, an increase of 72 percent.

Ayyar said KIPCO expected group revenues and profit to grow
by a double digit percentage each year over the next three
years.

Net profit in the three months to the end of December was 14
million dinars ($49.7 million), compared with 8 million dinars
in the same period the year before.
(Reporting by Sylvia Westall; Editing by Yara Bayoumy and Mark
Potter)